Recently, I’ve curated a number of image series by photographers from ‘Flickr’ on my blog ‘Aesthetic Investigations’. Subsequently, I thought it would be interesting to document these works in a book. Therefore, i’ve arranged a collection of ’39’ abstract and minimal photographic series by these ’32’ artists. A selection of pages from the book can be viewed below, a full book preview can be seen: HERE

Catching places, cities, glances: Ronan Guillou translates his pleasure and desire for keeping traces of them during his walks. Cities, and the people who animate them, are the basis of his humanistic approach. Aside from his commercial campaigns, Guillou’s personal work records moments of ordinary life, where men and women are photographed during their daily routines in urban landscapes. Initially influenced by cinematic environments and the aesthetics of American cities, his work also extends to cities in Asia, Europe and South America. Without criticism, Guillou feels affection and empathy for his characters, giving the images a pictorialist and poetic depth… – [Extract : Bio – Sous Les Etoiles Gallery]

For the past ten years, Ronan Guillou has undertaken a broad personal photographic investigation, suggesting a vision of the complexity of the dialogue between the protagonists of urban life. It was in the process of his numerous expeditions on different continents that this research became clearer, before he made the United States his primary source of documentation. Difficult to classify, Ronan Guillou’s work is somewhere in between documentary photography and plastic photography; where in just a few years, the artist compiled a considerable body of work that he only began showing in 2005.

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‘Intra Muros Series’
Ronan Guillou
C-Print
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‘Downtown Series’
Ronan Guillou
C-Print
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‘Downtown Series’
Ronan Guillou
C-Print
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‘Intra Muros Series’
Ronan Guillou
C-Print
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‘Intra Muros Series’
Ronan Guillou
C-Print
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‘Downtown Series’
Ronan Guillou
C-Print
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‘Intra Muros Series’
Ronan Guillou
C-Print
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If his photographs suggest a poetic vision of the ordinary and call upon the imagination of each and every one of us, they also question us on the temporality [material matter] of places, reveal their nearly organic power as well as their fragility, and examine man’s relationship with the constructed universe. The use of a medium-sized format allows the artist to give priority to immediate contact with his subject while remaining in touch with the elements outside of the frame.

Color is also at the heart of the production process as the decisive material of the formal approach; if in fact it makes it possible to reveal the geometrical force of spaces and the poetic dimension of certain scenes, it tends to pay tribute to traditional American iconography as well. The entirety of Ronan’s work is produced on negative film and no retouching is carried out on the originals, leaving the photographers point of view intact and without distortion. – Extract : Press Release – NextLevel Galerie

Works of Roberta Vilić act as “fields of memory (reminiscence)“- they are places of intimate, symbolical exchange, where private perception transforms into a visual code. “The work itself is a screen of the authors interior“, wrote Janja Feric for the occasion of Roberta Vilic’s exhibition in gallery Galežnica end 2002. Evocational character of the matter transforms the painting surface into a suggestive field. In the tactile game of associations, from structure of the matter itself rise or disperse diagrams and traces. Leaving an imprint of time eroded walls and evocate a metaphorical picture of passing of time.

Moreover, Roberta’s works constitute researches of space and surface/plane, structure, matter, and material. These are abstract compositions of reduced coloring, summarized to approbation of patterns of monochrome surfaces, grey, black or white, they are close to minimalism, and they address void and surface as central figures, activating the relation between positive and negative. On the surface of the painting, layer closest to the observer, one can sense words or letters as the only reference to the world of externality, and which in subsequent elaborations and research loses its narrative character by becoming an unobtrusive symbol, and by adopting abstract character of the sign. During this sublimation process a shift is apparent, deep ponderation, which results with cumulative sense of easement of the structure, its purification and appeasement.

The new works are produced in the continuity of the author’s expression, certain form-content patterns, and visible close communication with the heritage of informell. In time we find revelations and researches of a technical nature. Alongside parts of text and letters, cuts, scratches, ruptures and gaps appear as peer elements. The author addresses them as one does a graphical matrix. These are all messages inserted in the matter and contribute its expressive power and re-evaluation of our comprehension of elementary world of matter. Without evocating objective signs and symbols by principle of tautology. By conceptualization of reduction and recurrence methods, in almost monotone repetitiveness rhythm and change are bought by minimal and discreet shifts which emphasize uniqueness of multi-layered structure of each individual work. – Extract: Branka Benčić – Marisall Gallery